The 19th edition of the Asian Games is set to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8 this year.

And India's eyes and hope's are on their Golden Boy, Neeraj Chopra.

The Indian contingent will hope to better its performance of 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze medals from five years ago in Indonesia, it will have to face some tough challenges in order to achieve that.

Neeraj Chopra will look to successfully defend his gold medal in Men’s Javelin Throw. The 25-year-old, who is also the reigning World and Olympic champion and Diamond League runner-up, had emerged victorious at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia with a throw of 88.06m.

The Indian’s biggest competition this time will be Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion. Nadeem had won bronze in 2018 but has improved significantly since then.

At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, he became the first-ever athlete from South Asia to breach the 90m mark with his fifth-round throw of 90.18m. On the other hand, Neeraj’s personal best is 89.94m - achieved at the 2022 Stockholm Diamond League.

At the recently concluded World Championships in Budapest, Nadeem fell short of Neeraj’s gold medal-winning effort of 88.17m by 35cm.